We must use our pubs or lose them
LIKE Tom Utley (Mail), I am a pub-lover. I have run my own pubs for the past 38 years, after spending seven years learning the ropes.
To me, being in a pub is one of the most enjoyable pastimes and, because of the human interaction, I’m sure it’s a great way to help people avoid mental health issues. Yet for the past 20 years the Government and various authorities have demonised pubs, scaring the public about the dangers of having more than a sniff of the barmaid’s apron.
Pubs have struggled for years, but the pandemic was a hammer blow, with those that survived left up to their eyes in bounce-back loans and other debt. Now, just as we were starting to head back to normality, we get hit by a rail strike which has decimated the citycentre pub trade because everyone has been working from home.
Then came the heatwave warnings. On the hottest day of the year so far, my flagship pub The Wellington, right in the centre of Birmingham, was dead. We have a beautifully air-conditioned ground floor and a suntrap roof terrace but there was hardly a soul in either of them.
Don’t underestimate the value and importance of the pub. This country will be a far sadder place when they have all been driven out of business.
NIGEL BARKER, The Wellington, Birmingham.
TOM UTLEY didn’t mention how the price of beer has changed in relation to spirits. When I started drinking in the early 1970s, a single shot of a spirit was twice the price of a pint. Now my pint costs more than a double spirit.
MICHAEL LYNCHEHAUN, Wallasey, Merseyside.
I KNOW how Tom Utley feels at being charged £5.15 for a pint. In the bar of a London station, I had to pay £15 for a medium-sized glass of white wine.
BRENDA SPRAY, Romford, East London.
I JUST pray that whoever is the next Prime Minister doesn’t successfully ‘level up’ the North so we have to pay £5.15 for an inferior pint.
G. STARKEY, Rochdale, Gtr Manchester.